help needed immediately - (Oct/07/2011 )

hello friends,

I have an assignment which includes a question which is "structural levels of biomolecules". I have found primary, secondary and tertiary structures of proteins and nucleic acids but i am finding it difficult to find primary, secondary and tertiary structures of carbohydrates and lipids. please suggest me an answer for this question.


Thank you

Surely you can work out what would be the primary structure for a carbohydrate and a lipid (think basic chemistry, as you would write it out)

Do carbohydrates and lipids form tertiary and secondary structures - what features of the molecules would allow them to do this?

I know lipids do not have secondary or tertiary structure as I work in lipid metabolism. Unless you mean formation of micelles.. but I've never heard of this referred to as secondary or tertiary structure.

So that would be your answer for lipids. Carbohydrates - how about cellulose -primary = single strand, secondary = sheet...you may need to think about co-factors or other components to get tertiary structures. e.g. DNA wrapped by histones.